The Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), a Global Affairs Canada (GAC)-funded project, has closed out the implementation of the project after 7 years of impactful work.
The MEDA project, during its implementation, served as a remedy for eradicating poverty among women and youths in Bauchi State through its WAY Nigeria programme.
Speaking at the close-out ceremony held in Bauchi, the Director General of the Bauchi State Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mrs. Lydia John Shehu, commended the project, saying that it was a worthwhile project that the state enjoyed.
The MEDA project was implemented across seven local government areas of the state, while the elaborate closeout ceremony was held at the Multipurpose Indoor Sports Hall in Bauchi.
Lydia Shehu stressed that the Canadian organisation Global Affairs Canada (GAC) is the best development partner and has impacted immensely on the socio-economic development of the state by impacting the lives of the people of the state, particularly those peasants residing in rural areas.
The state SDGs Director General, however, appealed to the benefiting families to ensure that they sustained the programme for the overall development of the state and the well-being of their families.
Speaking earlier, the Country Project Manager of the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), Mrs Grace Fosen, commended the Bauchi state government for giving the organisation the opportunity to implement the project in the first place.
She appealed to the government through its relevant functionaries to support the MEDA’s activities for the development of the people of the state even after the closeout.
Grace Fosen also said that the cardinal objectives of MEDA were to see positive improvement in the business capacity of women and youths, create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs, and enhance small-scale businesses in the production and processing of farm produce such as rice, groundnut, and soybeans.
The Country Project Manager also applauded the people of Bauchi State for the hospitality accorded to them during the period of implementation of MEDA’s programmes in the state.
While highlighting the achievements recorded by the organisation in the state, the MEDA Community Liaison Officer, Malam Iliya Shu’aibu, said that since its take-off in 2017, MEDA has carried out its activities in seven local government areas of the state, including Bauchi, Toro, Warji, Ganjuwa, Jama’are, Dass, and Katagum.
According to Iliya Shuaibu, under a year-long review, MEDA has registered 294 small-scale businesses in addition to the establishment of 509 saving groups across 443 communities in the seven local government areas of the state of implementation.
He expressed happiness that members of the saving groups were able to save the sum of N700m in three years, saying that in order to ensure the sustainability of its activities across the seven local government areas of the state, MEDA has established empowerment learning centres in addition to a gender action learning system aimed at resolving issues bordering families in society.
Some of the beneficiaries interviewed expressed their gratitude to MEDA for empowering them to be self-sufficient and employers of Labour for assuring them of their readiness towards the eradication of poverty in their respective communities.
Binta Zubairu is a WAY project client who deals in rice, groundnut, and soybeans in Warji, Warji LGA of Bauchi State. She started her entrepreneurial journey in groundnut processing with her mother about 15 years ago.
She processed between 15 and 25 mudus every week before she learned of the WAY project. This was a part-time business for her; she is only active during festive periods or occasions.
She joined the WAY project as an entrepreneur (EN) and later became a women’s sales agent (WOSA) due to her entrepreneurial skills. She was trained in business development and financial literacy, where she learned skills that improved her business.
“I attended the training in Warji here and made up my mind to add other businesses to what I was doing. I switched to marketing and am now buying and reselling grains, rice, beans, soybeans, groundnuts, and oils.”.
She also attended a training course on digital finance (agent banking), where she learned about POS business.
“Digital finance training (agent banking) was another turning point for me. Though I am used to the POS machine because I operate it for somebody sometimes, I didn’t know the secret about its economic benefits. I thought it was something that needed a lot of money, and travelling to Bauchi to source cash. During the training, all the secrets were revealed to us, and I picked interest in the business.”
As an entrepreneur, she trades in the project value chains in cash most times; she deposits the cash into her account through the POS agents around her and gets charged for such transactions. The digital finance training inspired her to go into business and have her own POS terminal. She now owns a registered business named “BZ Processing Ventures.”.
“Since I have my own POS terminal, I have become an agent that provides financial services in my community. I no longer take cash from the other POS agent to deposit for me; rather, I use the cash to pay those who come to make withdrawals from me, and the money I transfer from their cards goes directly to my account, and I equally charge them for the services I rendered.”
She has an advantage over other POS agents in the community because other agents have to source cash outside of Warji, but she always has cash with her, and she makes transactions of over 2 million naira a month, especially during the payment of salaries for civil servants.
“I do more transactions when civil servants receive their salaries and market days; I do receive N200,000 to N500,000 cash during market days.”
The digital finance training was helpful to her during the cash scarcity due to the cashless policy of the federal government. She did not face the challenges other competitors faced; she had an alternative mode of transaction when others relied on only cash. “I made more profit during the cash crunch because the price of those that paid electronically was different from those that paid in cash, and the normal charges for those that came for withdrawal were tripled during that time.”
Her monthly profit from the POS business ranges between N70,000 and N80,000. The proceeds from her business are being used to support household expenses and other personal finances. She now serves as a source of motivation for other project clients who received digital finance training to invest in the POS agent business.
“I have eight children; some are in tertiary institutions; some are in secondary and primary school; I contribute almost 50% of my family needs; I have a mother and sibling whom I assist when the need arises; and my husband has been helpful and supportive in my business, seeing how I contribute to family needs.”
Her next plan is to open another outlet in a nearby village that does not even have a single terminal. This will reduce their expenses to travel to a nearby town where there is a POS terminal for deposits and withdrawals, especially on market days.
Agent Baking training was a Game-Changer for Salamatu Chiroma’s family and the entire community as an agricultural entrepreneur who is into farming and processing in Durr village of Dass LGA. As a rural dweller, she had no opportunity to have a previous education, but that did not impede her from engaging in legitimate business.
She is into farming rice, soybeans, groundnut, and maize. She is also a processor and marketer of stated grains. This entrepreneurial engagement qualified her to be selected as a WoSA among MEDA clients.
According to her, “Life before the MEDA project was a little above primitive, where I carried out businesses without knowledge of how businesses should be run. Sometimes my business stopped because of how I managed the fund.”
“We had no idea how to account for our business; we sold and spent our money when the need arose; there were no savings; we just spent both the capital and profit until I joined the VSLA group created by MEDA, where I started receiving pieces of training on business management and development.”
Talking about financial inclusion, she stated that she has no access to formal financial services because there is no bank in her entire LGA, let alone her village.
People in her village have to travel long to Bauchi city if they have anything to do with a bank, like an account opening and other things, or they travel to Dass, the LG headquarters, to meet POS agents if they need little cash. Her business was moving normally when she was interviewed about her business and later mobilised for agent banking training.
“Being a member of SLG and one of the WoSAs in the LGA, my business was moving and growing steadily until I received a visitor asking some questions about my business and other things relating to agent banking. After some days, I was invited to attend a two-day training on agent baking.”
She was one of the participants in agent banking training conducted by Emeraid to prepare WoSAs with the skills to become banking agents providing financial services in their various communities. The training was mind-boggling to her, as she saw an opportunity in the business to empower her family and provide financial services in her community.
“The story of the trainer on how he started the business and how the business transformed his life and recounted his achievements inspired me to pay attention during the training session. After I came back from the training, I related the story to my sons and made up my mind to have one in my shop, which my son manages. I acquired one to give it a trial. It was like a play when we saw a man going to Dass to withdraw money. My son intercepted him and brought out the POS terminal. We initiated the transaction of N30,000 and were successful. That is how the business started; everyone in the village and nearby villages comes to us for transactions. I am the only one in the village with a POS terminal providing financial services in the village.”
She is a shop owner in the village, selling grains and provisions, managed by her older son. Now she has assigned the POS business to her younger son to manage. The manager stated that it is a lucrative business that many people may not realise; the number of customers increases day by day, especially during salary and market days. When they started, they used to do transactions in the range of N80,000 to N100,000 a day, but now they can exhaust N300,000 to N400,000 a day, and the charge on each N10,000 is N200, meaning they realise a profit of between N6000 and N8000 per day. He added that cash is not their problem because people bring cash for deposits and they also use cash from sales in the shop to pay those who need cash from their POS terminal, and those who don’t have cash can transfer to their Moniepoint account to get items they want from their shop.
The woman made good use of the training she received to improve her business and empower her son. The woman, in her statement, mentioned how she has been thinking of business for her younger son: “My wish has been to get my younger son a separate business to keep him engaged; now, thank God, the wish has been fulfilled.”
The only challenge in the business is a large number of customers during salary and market days when one terminal seems not to be enough. She has been trying to add one but has not been able to do so since, but she is hoping to add one or more soon.
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